Finding a Place
by discobiscuit92
Summary: Set in the Western Air Temple. Katara struggles to keep up with the growing needs of the growing Gaang. Can Zuko help her out? What's going on between them? Zutara.


It had started off as a bad day. Momo woke Katara up at the ass-crack of dawn, and not even for a good reason, she thought bitterly. He should have known better than to wake her, and he definitely should have known better than to wake her by yanking on her hair. Precious hours of sleep were lost because Momo decided Katara's nest of hair had enough bugs in it to provide him with his breakfast.

Another bad thing: that morning when Katara woke up, it was monsoon season. Just like it had been every day for about a month. Monsoon season meant almost constant rain, and constant rain meant her hair was beyond impossible to deal with. It probably _did_ have enough bugs in it for Momo's breakfast. It wasn't that she didn't bathe once a day, Fire Nation bugs just liked her hair for some unfortunate reason.

After shooing Momo away, she tried to fall back asleep. She lay still in her sleeping bag and listened to the sounds of the rain for a solid thirty minutes. Finding sleep impossible, Katara got up to start making breakfast for the gaang. There wasn't anything better to do this early in the morning. The humidity from the rain caused the stone floors of the temple to be perpetually damp and slippery against her feet as she walked to the common area.

After searching a little bit she found the food supplies bag. She reached inside, hoping for something delicious to make up for the fact she was awake several hours earlier than usual. She found only one thing: papayas. Her face fell. Katara hated papayas. She let out an aggravated sigh and determined that they had to have _something_ other than papayas, and that she was just going to have to look for it.

After she had methodically emptied all the bags that contained the group gear and meticulously searched the contents of each, Katara could only come to one conclusion. There was no other morsel of food for her to eat; all they had were papayas. Her stomach growled. Why did they even have papayas to start with? Who liked them so much that they had to buy a whole bag of them? Were they even in season? She decided that she would have to take over the grocery shopping. Again. She thought that it would be okay to let someone else do it – as if she didn't have enough responsibilities – once everyone had recovered from the spitted hog monkey indecent. Thank you, Sokka.

She released an exasperated sigh as she lay back on the cold stones, hands behind her head. She let her mind wander to food. In the back of her head she wondered when she had become so much like Sokka as she drifted off into a light sleep.

And now it was raining again. Naturally, Katara's hair was one big, frizzy, and completely unmanageable poof. She ran her fingers through it anyways in a vain effort to straighten it out. She let out a choked sob from where she sat, on the ledge of one of the tower balconies. The half strangled sound echoed out into the abyss in front of her.

Sure she'd had worse days. The day that Zuko betrayed her and Aang got shot by Azula's lightening, or the day her father was left behind as a war prisoner came to mind. She was able to hold it together then. But why not now? She sniffled. She knew exactly what it was.

Zuko.

He put her on edge constantly. Always in the back of her head she worried. What was he thinking about?

She was over the trust issue. After she had time to think about it and get past her anger, she could rationally sort it out. No one, not even someone as driven as Zuko would stand up to Sparky Boom Combustion Man – what did Sokka call him again? - unless it was a matter of life or death. He had saved them that day, no matter how she looked at it, even if it was pretty much his fault to start with.

He put his life on the line to save them, a bunch of strangers that had just completely rejected him. That showed her how serious he was, at any rate.

She couldn't help but find amusement when he, the guy that was supposed to teach Aang how to fire bend, completely lost his skills. As much as her emotions got in the way, Katara couldn't help but give in to her logic, and, though she would be the last to admit it, be charmed by his goofy presence. Was this really the same angry young man that had chased them all over the world?

Even if she trusted him, even if they were friends, even if Zuko was part of their family, she knew she wasn't supposed to feel this way about him. This longing, this...this, she didn't know what to call it. Wasn't this what she felt for Jet?

No. That was different. That was being blinded by a flashy smile and some cheap compliments. This was...bigger (like her hair). She didn't know how else to describe it.

Katara's thoughts were interrupted by the feeling that someone was behind her. It had to be Zuko. He was the only person that could appear out of thin air without making a sound. She didn't turn around, but started twisting her hair tighter in her hands.

"So, do you uh, mind if I sit down too?" He asked in his usual, almost painfully awkward way.

She didn't say anything but nodded her head. He came to sit down beside her, dangling his legs over the edge of the balcony. "I'm sorry about the papayas" he tried. She didn't respond.

"It's actually a funny story, we were at the market a ways away in some new town. At first we were going to this one cart with lots of stuff on it, but, you know how Toph is, so we had to walk around for a while, look around a bit, and uh, well, never mind. I guess it's not actually that funny..." he trailed off. He tried to laugh a little bit. It didn't really work.

Katara hung her head. Looking down at her lap she began to mumble an apology. "I'm sorry for blowing up back there. It wasn't even about the papayas." She looked up again, out into the crevasse. "I guess it's just hard, taking care of everyone."

Zuko looked at his own lap for a few minutes, trying to decide on how to deal with this situation. He decided to imitate Toph, or what he thought Toph might do. He gruffly slung his arm around her shoulders speaking with a cheesy happiness in his voice, "Cheer up, sweetness. You and I can go grocery shopping together from now on..." he paused, not sure where to take it from there, "and um, I'll... I'll tell Sokka that he better watch out, or he'll be sowing up the holes in his clothes by himself." He tried to sound authoritative. He looked to the side to see if she was convinced.

Katara was biting her lip, trying not to cry. Why was it that nice words always make you cry more when you're vulnerable?

She leaned into his chest and started to cry in earnest. Zuko, who didn't understand why she was crying even more now, began rubbing her back soothingly. Even as she cried she noticed his pleasant scent, and knew she couldn't deny it. She wanted him, and that might have made her cry harder.


End file.
